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A sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda for the NES sold for a whopping $870,000 on Friday via Heritage Auctions.
The sale has broken the record for the most expensive video game ever purchased, which is all the more shocking when you consider that the previous record was set only a few months back when a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. was sold for $660,000.
As for what made this sealed version of the first Zelda game so high-value, Heritage Auctions clarified quite simply that this specific copy was an exceptionally rare variant. This iteration of the game – known as “NES-R” – was only in production for a few short months during 1987 before being replaced by the “Rev-A” variant in 1988.
However, despite being among the rarest and most sought-after variants of the cartridge, there’s even a rarer one yet. The “NES TM” version was the first production run of the game, but it’s commonly assumed that only a single sealed copy of that iteration still exists and is unlikely to ever go to auction. This makes Friday’s auctioned cartridge the earliest sealed copy of the game that will likely ever be available for purchase.
Look, The Legend of Zelda is an incredible game that helped pioneer the open world and role-playing genres, but you’re probably not going to shell out $870,000 for a copy. No worries, though, because you can check out all of modern platforms on which you can play this groundbreaking classic by going right here. That should give you something to do while we all patiently wait to see what video game will finally sell for a seven digit number.
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